I've loved the Breath of Fire series since I first played the GBA port of the first game as a kid, back when it was new. I unfortunately missed III and IV until I was in high school, but I got Dragon Quarter in middle school and I ADORED it, despite its very obvious antagonism toward the player. It reminded me of Chrono Cross, which I had also fallen in love with at the time.
Dragon Quarter is VASTLY different to every other game in the series, to an almost ludicrous degree. It's honestly vastly different to most games I can think of. It uses semi-roguelike mechanics (if the D% reaches 100%, then the game is over, gotta restart the whole thing- carrying over stats and items and D-Ratio improvements, but still) and an SRPG movement and action point system, and the former is even directly woven into the themes of the narrative.
All in all, if you like extremely punishing games, games with New Game+ (in this game, it's kind of mandatory), and roguelike-ish experiences, Dragon Quarter is worth at least TRYING. There is a really great game here and it has a history of being very unfairly maligned.
Dragon Quarter is VASTLY different to every other game in the series, to an almost ludicrous degree. It's honestly vastly different to most games I can think of. It uses semi-roguelike mechanics (if the D% reaches 100%, then the game is over, gotta restart the whole thing- carrying over stats and items and D-Ratio improvements, but still) and an SRPG movement and action point system, and the former is even directly woven into the themes of the narrative.
All in all, if you like extremely punishing games, games with New Game+ (in this game, it's kind of mandatory), and roguelike-ish experiences, Dragon Quarter is worth at least TRYING. There is a really great game here and it has a history of being very unfairly maligned.